The ‘Star Wars’ We Love Is Back In ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’

For as much as Harrison Ford has, let’s face it, hated the character of Han Solo over the last, oh, 32 years (despite Ford’s newfound, let’s say, toleration of everything Solo over the last few months), you would never guess it from watching Ford blast, fly and finagle his way through Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This is Ford’s best performance in years — he really looks like he’s a guy having fun on the set of a Star Wars movie for the first time since the original Star Wars. (Ford is great in The Empire Strikes Back, but that’s not really a “fun” movie.) In the next few years, Lucasfilm will be releasing a new standalone Han Solo movie featuring some other actor playing the role. In the meantime, The Force Awakens is almost a Han Solo movie unto itself.

But, not quite, because Daisy Ridley as a lonely desert scavenger named Rey; John Boyega as a former First Order Stormtrooper, now wanted deserter, Finn; and Oscar Issac as Resistance pilot Poe (I would have liked to have seen a little more Poe) are all so fantastic, and they bring to The Force Awakens what the prequels were so desperately missing: a sense of humor. There are actual laughs to be had in The Force Awakens! The original Star Wars had laughs. It’s this, more than anything, that makes The Force Awakens feel like a direct sequel to the original trilogy.

The Force Awakens does not take itself too seriously – oh, boy, just wait until you watch Domhnall Gleeson ham it up as General Hux – and this is a good thing. Don’t get me wrong! There are many “serious” moments, it just threads that needle like a Star Wars movie should.

That pretty much sums it up. It’s weird because I never really cared for Mike at first even though we had similar tastes while I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Vince and our tastes are completely opposite. I’m warming up to Mike though, he’s an alright guy

Interesting review. At first I felt like I missed an introduction or another page of the review, because he up and just started talking about Harrison Ford without a leadin, but whatevs.

I wanna see Vince’s review because now it’s sounding like alot of the movie just rehashes alot from the first trilogy for basic fan service. Pandering can be fine in doses, but if this whole movie is just one big reference fest, that could blow. I’m not too worried though, because John Boyega, Daisy Ridley and Oscar Isaac are all insanely likable, so the characters should at least be lovable and well-developed relatively quickly.

I just got back from the theater a little while ago , and yeah, there are many throwbacks to the originals. The main story line is basically episode 4 v. 2 But the characters and fun action scenes make up for it.

Thinking about it, walking home, I got the idea it was all about getting as much of the original trilogy out of the way as possible. So many story beats and scenes were direct homages, I think they were making the point that ‘yeah, we can do Star Wars, and do it better’, meaning the future films (hopefully) will go in new directions.

But ultimately as you say, the new characters are just so damn good that it should be fun even if they keep blowing up planetary superweapons and having the odd lightsaber fight.

@ajax @TheMarvin Glad to hear all of this. Seeing it tonight and am having a hard time sitting at my desk. From everything I’ve read so far, it seems like its winning formula is a good balance between new characters and old story structure.